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World / Gulf

Saudi Arabia recruited Darfur children to fight in Yemen: NYT

Published: 29 Dec 2018 - 03:28 pm | Last Updated: 15 Nov 2021 - 06:10 pm
FILE PHOTO: Nael Shyoukhi/Reuters

FILE PHOTO: Nael Shyoukhi/Reuters

Al Jazeera

Saudi Arabia recruited children from Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur region to fight on the frontlines of its war in Yemen, the New York Times has reported.

The kingdom offered desperate Sudanese families as much as $10,000 to enlist their children to fight in the nearly four-year-old war against Houthi rebels, the Times said on Friday.

Led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, intervened in Yemen in 2015 in support of the internationally recognised President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Sudan joined the Saudi-led alliance, deploying thousands of ground troops to Yemen. 

Five Sudanese fighters who had returned from Yemen told the Times that children made up between 20- 40 percent of their units in Yemen.

Many of the child soldiers were aged 14 to 17, the report said, and were often sent off to war by their families, some of whom were so eager for the money that they bribed officers of the Sudanese units in Yemen to let their sons go fight, the Times said. 

"Families know that the only way their lives will change is if their sons join the war and bring them back money," Hager Shomo Ahmed told the Times.

The returned fighter is now 16, but was recruited to fight in Yemen in 2016 when he was 14 years old.

The fighters told the Times that while in Yemen, the Saudis and Emirates overseeing the Sudanese units commanded them almost exclusively by remote control so that they could keep a safe distance from the battle lines.

"They never fought with us," Mohamed Suleiman al-Fadil said, while a 25-year-old fighter identified as Ahmed told the newspaper: "They treat the Sudanese like their firewood."

Hundreds of Sudanese fighters have been killed in Yemen, according to the Times

A spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition denied recruiting Sudanese children in a statement to the newspaper, labelling the allegations "fictitious and unfounded".

The Times said Babikir Elsiddig Elamin, a spokesman for Sudan's Foreign Ministry, declined to comment on troop levels, casualties or paychecks in Yemen. He told the newspaper that Sudan was fighting "in the interest of regional peace and stability."

The Sudanese ground troops have made it easier for the Saudis and Emiratis to extend the war in Yemen, by insulating them from casualties that might test the patience of families at home, the Times said. 

The war in Yemen has killed more than 60,000 people, according to the war monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, and has pushed the already impoverished country to the verge of famine.

The United Nations said the conflict there has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis.